Tag: university

  • Quality Incentives Found Effective for Health Care Outcomes

    A test of financial incentives for delivering high quality health care shows patients of medical providers receiving those pay-for-performance incentives have better outcomes for a number of common conditions than patients receiving care through the traditional fee-for-service model. The research team from University of California in San Francisco and New York City Department of Health…

  • Nanodiamonds Improve Chemotherapy Targeting for Brain Tumors

    Researchers at University of California in Los Angeles, with colleagues from Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, developed a more precise delivery method for chemotherapy drugs using nanoscale diamonds to treat brain tumors. The team that included participants from the lab of UCLA biomedical engineering professor Dean Ho published their findings online in…

  • Wireless Sensor System Detects Occurrence of Elderly Falls

    Engineers at University of Utah in Salt Lake City developed a system combining wireless radio-wave sensors and a control algorithm to detect a person falling, without the individual wearing a separate device. Graduate student Brad Mager, representing the Utah team, presents the findings of a proof-of-concept test of the system today at the IEEE Personal,…

  • Clinical Trial Tests Implantable Melanoma Vaccine

    Engineering and medical researchers at Harvard University, with colleagues from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, started an early-stage clinical trial testing an implanted vaccine to treat melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer.The trial is designed primarily to test the safety of the proposed treatments with patients having advanced melanoma that has spread in the body,…

  • Stanford University Adds Funds for Start-Up Accelerator

    Stanford University and its hospital system, with the business accelerator program StartX, unveiled a three-year, $3.6 million fund to support early-stage enterprises started by Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs. StartX is a training and mentoring program for founders of new companies with a connection to Stanford including students, faculty, postdocs, and alumni. StartX, a not-for-profit organization, connects new…

  • Biopharm Raises $45.9M in Venture Funding for Ear Disorders

    Otonomy Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in San Diego specializing in middle and inner-ear disorders, collected $45.9 million in its third venture financing round. OrbiMed Advisors, a venture capital company specializing in health care investments, led the round with new investors Aperture Venture Partners and Osage University Partners taking part, along with current investors Avalon Ventures,…

  • University of Houston Spins-Off Nanotech Coatings Company

    A physics professor at University of Houston in Texas started a company to develop and manufacture protective coatings for industrial and consumer goods based on his research in nanotechnology. C-Voltaics, started by Houston physicist Seamus Curran, was awarded last week the Young Technology Award at the Commercialization of Micro- and Nanosystems conference in The Netherlands, according…

  • Transparent Skull Implant Devised for Laser Brain Treatments

    Engineers at University of California at Riverside developed a transparent material for implants in the skull that could allow for lasers to treat brain disorders. A team from the lab of mechanical engineering professor Guillermo Aguilar published its findings online last month in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine (paid subscription required). The advance…

  • Top Hospital Infection Costs Estimated at $9.8B Per Year

    Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston estimate the annual cost of the five leading infections contracted in health care facilities in the U.S. at $9.8 billion, with surgical site infections causing about one-third of those costs. The team led by Brigham and Women’s research fellow Eyal Zimlichman published its…

  • Menthol Cigarette Smoking Rising Among Teens, Young Adults

    Public health researchers from University at Buffalo in New York found smoking of mentholated cigarettes is increasing among teenagers and young adults in the U.S., while smoking of non-menthol cigarettes declined in this age group. The findings of the team led by Buffalo’s Gary Giovino — with colleagues from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown universities,  Biostatistics…